February 3, 2010

Alonso Wins the Headline Grand Prix.

So did we learn anything from the first official test session? Not much really, not unless you have access to all the data, fuel loads, all lap times, tire wear and nobody is letting that out of the bag. However there was one very interesting fact I read about somewhere, Alonso did his best time, the best of the test session, during the very early laps of a very long run. That of course means the Ferrari F10 is quick on full tanks which is good news for Maranello. Another data point is that the Ferrari's were the only cars under the 1:12 mark.



But it's only the first test and Ferrari should be ahead of everyone as they were the first to drop development of the 2009 car to concentrate on the F10. There is also the looming issue of the rear diffuser protest...again. The Mercedes diffuser takes up the complete width of the space between the rear wheels while most others are significantly smaller, a little more than the width of the rear wing. Mclaren kinds of splits the difference, it is about same width as the others but then adds a hefty outside section. Something to follow but I wonder if with the thinner front tires this year it will not be more about weight distribution than ultimate rear downforce anyway.

One of our readers, Alex, was kind enough to send us some pictures from the test session and asked about the Pitot tubes teams are running and why some have three foot tall towers and other have a much lower sensor position. We guess that the point of the tall ones is to get the sensor as far out of the airflow influenced by the car as possible but certainly Renault, Mclaren are not dummies and physics are the same for everyone... any guess as to what's going on there?

I assembled some raw feed clips of testing, it's a lot of material with more after the jump. Big props to those who take the time to upload this stuff for the rest of the world to see, enjoy and get excited about F1. Enjoy the sights and sounds

Combined best lap times over the three day test session.
Pos  Driver            Team                      Time      
1. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1min 11.470secs
2. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1min 11.722secs
3. Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari 1min 12.056secs
4. Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari 1min 12.094secs
5. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1min 12.256secs
6. Robert Kubica Renault 1min 12.426secs
7. Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 1min 12.438secs
8. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1min 12.576secs
9. Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 1min 12.899secs
10. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1min 12.951secs
11. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1min 13.097secs
12. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1min 13.377secs
13. Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1min 13.669secs
14. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1min 13.823secs
15. Gary Paffett McLaren-Mercedes 1min 13.846secs













5 comments:

  1. He did his fastest time in a 12 lap run, with 127 laps done in total.

    I think the ferrari is quick, but not in the order of the BGP-01 of last season.

    I think this "could" indicate we'll have a more competitive 2010 season?

    Let's hope that is the case. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. An honor to contribute to the blog gents.
    Adrian Newey must have a big grin on his face at how Ferrari aped the contoured nose of last years RB design. Can't wait to see what he's come up with for this year.
    Maybe I never listened carefully enough but it seems that there's more audible transmission whine this year, maybe from beefed up gears to handle the extra fuel weight?
    I personally love the look of this years cars, the wide rear tires and skinnier fronts has a very vintage look to it, making the cars look meaner.

    ReplyDelete
  3. @ Slowflow, what would be most interesting is to get a lap time chart to see how consistent the cars are or are not....

    ReplyDelete
  4. The high mounted pitot might have something to do with pitch sensitivity.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Michael is bad-mannered:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93rk-yymee0

    ReplyDelete

nRelate Posts Only